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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Book Review | July - August 2015

I feel like I'm slowly getting back into enjoying reading again since my holidays and my latest reads couldn't be more different. After finishing The Girl on the Train I decided to go for something more lighthearted with the latest in the Shopaholic series from Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic to the Stars.

I've long loved the Shopaholic series and have something of an affinity for Becky Bloomwood. When I read the first book, Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic it particularly resonated with me as I once sold a lot of my belongings on eBay when I found myself to have got carried away with store cards when I turned 18. My mum also enjoyed reading them and we used to have a long running joke whenever we went shopping and saw something we liked and would use Becky's justification 'they'll call me the girl with the insert object of desire here'.

Whilst I did enjoy this latest installment I did find myself a little frustrated with Becky and actually liked her a little less than I had before. I'm not without my questionable spending habits to this day but as I was reading the way Becky behaved in this book I found myself frustrated and it had stopped been so endearing as it once was.

That aside I still enjoyed reading the book and couldn't believe the cliffhanger it was left on. I think I may have actually said 'WTF' on the train. As such Ms Kinsella has certainly ensured I'll be grabbing the follow up.

I'm clearly late to the party with Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and if you're further behind than me and haven't yet read the book it might be worth you skipping to the end of this post to avoid any potential spoilers.

As a train commuter, and admittedly less so in today's e-reader society, it's amusing to see what is the 'book du jour'. Gone Girl was that book many moons ago now and you couldn't get into a train carriage without at least one person sitting with their head in a copy. For whatever reason it had passed me by.

On the film release I was still in the dark about anything out than the basics and any revealing spoilers had not made my ears so I went along with mum but was disappointed. I found the film rather dark, slow and both the main characters so unlikable it didn't allow for enough sympathy. Of course one of the characters believes particularly appalling that left me in some state of shock but I walked out feeling rather 'blah' about the whole thing.

Despite my opinions on the film I was keen to read the book for comparison, particularly as there were so many varied opinions on which was better or preferred. Having read the book I wish I'd done so before seeing the film. In my opinion it's far more superior and my only, and minimal at that, lack of enjoyment reading came from what knowledge I had from the film.

I have subsequently watched the film again and did view it with different eyes. I still had little sympathy with the main characters but at least whilst reading the book I found I had a more rounded view of the characters, whether pleasant or not.

I have moved on once again to a more lighter read but I'm keen to try out more of Gillian Flynn's books. As alluded to in my thoughts on the Shopaholic book I think as I've got older my tastes require a bit more variety from the usual chick lit.